Follow me?
by OatmealMistress
Summary: For the first time Hinata guides Naruto. In flower pressing!


-Summer Fan works Entry for NaruHina Fanclub-

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**Follow Me?**

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Naruto outstretched his hand, slow and unsure.

"Walk with me?"

Her gaze slowly drifted from his eyes to stare at his hand. So long had she been waiting for this. Her hand nervously begun to rise, reaching for the hand she'd always dreamt of holding. Naruto held his breath when her hand met his; slowly he closed his hand sealing the much smaller one within it. A smile slowly graced both of their faces as they stared at their entwined hands.

"Naruto?" he looked up into Hinata's eyes to find them swirling with happiness, suddenly a burst of confidence rose it's way to their lavender surface. He watched Hinata step ahead still holding his hand, now staring at the back of her head. He stood confused.

"For once, will you follow me?" His eyes widened. Hinata turned her head back looking at him with pleading eyes; he answered her request with a soft look in his eye. With a warm smile she began to lead him.

Naruto stayed silent following behind her. They walked underneath the summer sun. Hinata lead them both swerving in and out between the bodies scattered about enjoying the beautiful day. Her heart thumped from the contact with the blonde, she was nervous but knowing Naruto was there with her, she stayed confident. They found the quiet between them pleasing and walked to the rhythm of nervous young hearts.

The two of them slowly approached the Yamanaka flower shop. Naruto broke the comfortable silence as they came to the door.

"Hinata, what exactly are we doing?" Hinata smiled at the suspicious look in on his face.

"We're picking out a flower." Before Naruto could respond she dragged him inside the shop. Instantly they were hit with the soft aroma of vanilla fragranced cosmos. Naruto watched as Hinata inhaled, she closed her eyes while her entire faced took on an expression of inner peace. He himself felt the same when near flowers. It was why he made sure to keep a flower or two in his apartment at all times, he felt strangely pleased knowing he and Hinata shared this feeling.

"What are you kid's doing here on such a fine summer day?" They heard a voice from behind a shelf filled with flowers in a variety of hues. Suddenly a woman came up, a head full of light brown hair placed in a bun faced them. A smile graced her face, in her hands a small pot of blue bellflowers.

"Yamanaka-sama!" Hinata exclaimed happily, with a quick bow of the head. "We're just here looking for a few flowers." The hazel eyed woman let out an 'mmmm' staring at the entwined teenage hands with a raised brow. Naruto and Hinata followed her stare to their hands and blushed.

The older women chuckled childishly as she noticed the embarrassed expressions on their faces. "Well _both _of you just tell me if you need something." The word _both_ swirled in the two teenagers heads.

"Um, thanks." Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously. "So um Hinata...why exactly are we picking out flowers?" he asked Hinata, the remnants of a blush still showing in her reddened cheeks.

"Well…Naruto-kun I was thinking perhaps we could press some flowers together." Hinata giggled at Naruto's unchanging confusion. She watched him poke a purple aster in a large pot next to him.

"Press?" he asked eyeing the flower he just poked suspiciously.

"Yes, flower pressing. It's a way of preserving flowers." She explained. Hinata turned her attention to the purple aster, which just received a good poking. Letting go of Naruto's hand she bent down gently feeling the vibrant flower in her hand. Naruto too bent down to get a closer look at the flower, acknowledging the lack of warmth in his hand. "You could take a flower like this and make it last forever."

"So you mean it'll never die?" Naruto said in awe wondering about the magical powers this flower pressing must possess. Hinata held back a giggle from his impressed expression.

"Well not exactly Naruto-kun. The flower will be dead, but by pressing it you're able to preserve it and keep a lot of its natural color. Sometimes flowers will get an even more vibrant color after being pressed." Naruto was amazed.

"Wow that's amazing Hinata!" Hinata smiled. "Well then are we getting it?"

"Getting it?" She asked. Naruto nodded towards the aster flower.

"Yup! This flower?" Hinata look back in forth between the flower and Naruto's grinning face.

"W-well Naruto-kun don't you want to look around at the other flowers?" Naruto furiously shook his head.

"Why? This one is beautiful and I want to start poking flowers!" Hinata giggled.

"Flower _pressing_." She corrected him. Naruto laughed nervously.

"Right, right sorry." Hinata sighed.

"Well Naruto-kun if you really like this flower, I think we should get it too. I find it to be quite beautiful myself." They both made there way to the check out desk where Mrs. Yamanaka stood writing something down in a little notebook. Two baskets of flowers hung over her. Hearing the two making their way towards her desk she looked up.

"Oh! Have you two found something you like?" Hinata nodded.

"We'd like to get a few of your purple aster flowers please." Hinata pointed to the pot of flowers her and Naruto had just come from.

"Of course, a very nice choice if I may had. Our purple asters always bloom so nicely during the summer." Mrs. Yamanaka left the company of the desk to go retrieve the flowers. Naruto and Hinata stood waiting for her return, silently sneaking glances at the others hand.

"Man we really need to work on these awkward silences." Naruto said nervously, remembering their meeting during the Chunin Exams. Hinata nodded at him, biting her lip trying to conceal her nervousness. "So uh…. where exactly are we going after this?"

"Well, I was hoping we could possibly press the flowers at your house. We could go to my home b-but the environment there isn't always the most relaxed and privacy can be a difficult thing. I want to be somewhere where we only have to worry about ourselves." Naruto nodded understanding her point.

"We can definitely go to my place!" Hinata smiled, excited to be able to go to his house. Mrs. Yamanaka then returned with a small pot with four flowers in it.

"It's on the house! You two enjoy the rest of your day!" Naruto and Hinata expressed their deep gratitude to the woman. Naruto grabbed the pot of flowers and the two left the flower shop.

Naruto began to lead the way to his new apartment. "Sorry Hinata, looks like you'll have to follow me a bit today." The two of them laughed. They walked through Konoha. Many new buildings were up, but empty lots were very common to spot when looking around. Hinata smiled when a group of small school children surrounded Naruto saying how amazing he was. She was happy people were finally realizing what she had realized as a child.

Naruto's apartment was located around the middle of Konoha so it luckily was one of the first things rebuilt. It was just a large wooden building like most of the other new re-built places in Konoha. Paint would come later, everyone becoming settled in a home was more important. Hinata followed Naruto up a staircase on the side of the building to the second floor. They approached a door and Naruto used one of his hands to shuffle in his pocket for a key. Finally unlocking the door her opened it. "Welcome to Naruto Uzuma- um." Hinata started at Naruto, as he seemed frozen in his doorway.

"Is something wrong Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked concerned trying to peek over Naruto's shoulder. Naruto turned to Hinata chuckling nervously.

"Yes of course! Just um…excuse me for one moment please…" He said disappearing into his apartment shutting the door behind him leaving Hinata standing outside in confusion. Naruto ran inside of his apartment placing the flowerpot on his table. With a quick hand symbol he created five clones to pick up items up off his messy floor. Hinata heard what sounded like things being knocked over and many people running around behind Naruto's door. After about two minutes the apartment door flung open revealing a panting blonde. Naruto leaned on the doorframe and gave Hinata smirk. "So like I was saying, welcome to Uzumaki Naruto's pad. Hinata giggled at his poor attempt at acting cool.

There wasn't much to Naruto's apartment. The floor was wooden along with the walls and the kitchen, dinning room and bedroom were all in the same space. It was small but Hinata found it cozy. She smiled at his orange comforter and 'I love Ramen' poster over his bed. It was the little touches Naruto added that made it seem special to her. "So what do you think…?" Naruto asked her.

"Uzumaki Naruto's pad is very nice." Hinata smiled at Naruto exclamation of happiness from her words.

"Well, then lets begin poki- _pressing_ flowers! Just lead the way." Hinata made her way over to the table happy to guide Naruto.

"Well the first step would of course be to take the flowers out of the pot. Would you have scissors by any chance?" Naruto nodded going to get a pair of scissors from a drawer in the kitchen and then making his way back to the table. "Just cut the flowers at the stem." Naruto grabbed the pot of flowers bringing it closer to him and began to cut the few flowers in the pot; he took the newly cut flowers and placed them on the table.

"Done! What's the next step?" Hinata glanced around the room until her eyes stopped on a roll of paper towel.

"Next we need to dry the flowers. We can use paper towels." Naruto got up to get the paper towels from his kitchen. While there he saw a box of chamomile tea on the counter. "Would you maybe like some tea, Hinata?"

"Tea would be lovely Naruto-kun." She said happily. Naruto nodded pouring water form the faucet into his teakettle and turning it on, he then brought the paper towels back to the table.

Both he and Hinata sat patting the flowers in between the towels trying to get out the moisture. Naruto found he was intrigued at how gently Hinata's hands patted the flowers. He found his eyes slowly moving up towards he face, observing her angelic fair completion and how her dark hair contrasted so perfectly with it. His gaze wandered to her lips and lingered there for a few moments until looking up into her eyes to find her gazing right back at him, he blushed realizing he had been caught staring. Hinata simply smiled at him with a blush of her own and again Naruto felt his heart trying to jump out of its cage.

"Hinata, why do you like flower pressing?" Naruto asked and watched, as Hinata seemed to get a distant look on her face. She looked down and unwrapped the aster flower from its towel and brought it up to her face to examine it further.

"The aster flower is so beautiful." She twirled the flower by the stem with an admirable gaze. "Though like all flowers it eventually wilts. My mother was the one who taught me how to press flowers. She brought me to her flower garden one morning and asked me to pick a flower. I ended up picking lavender. It was the first and last flower my mother ever helped me press." Naruto eye's widened at the word _last_. "I guess I like pressing flowers because it shows even when things die they still don't stop giving. Flowers can still give off beauty and people can still give off...love." Naruto's mind instantly went to his parents.

"Hinata." He paused a smile slowly forming on his face. "You're a really amazing girl."

"Well I suppose I have to thank you for that." She smiled. Naruto opened his mouth to respond when the teakettles timer went off.

"I'll go get that." He said sheepishly, Hinata nodded. Naruto walked to the kitchen getting out two mugs from the cabinet, one green with a frogs face on it and the other with 'Ramens #1 Fan' written on it. He poured the tea into both mugs making sure to fill it well, though not to high that'd he'd spill it all over himself making a fool of himself. He took a second to stare at the two mugs next to each other, realizing that it was the first time he'd ever used both at once. He smiled to himself picking up the mugs. He turned around to see Hinata flattening some aster flower petals with her fingers. Walking back to the table slowly he bent down placing the mugs down. Giving Hinata the ramen one and keeping the frog one to himself.

Hinata put down the flower and brought the mug closer to her, pulling the handle so she wouldn't burn her hands. She turned the mug around observing the writing words on in. '_Ramens #1 Fan….' _She read to herself, with a smile. "Thank you Naruto-kun." Naruto blushed.

"Just being a good host and all!" He said rubbing the back of his head. "So what are you doing?" Hinata pushed the mug away from her to let it cool and picked up a flower.

"The petals on this flower were a little thick, so I thought I'd do a bit of the dirty work myself and flatten it a bit. We've already dried the flowers so next what we need is some books." Naruto looked around his apartment nervously.

"Eh, well I don't have many books, I don't know if I'll have ones you're looking for." Hinata smiled at his nervous look.

"They just need to be a heavy books, a dictionary?" She asked with a tilt of the head, observing Naruto's continued nervous looks around the room she tried again. "A phone book?" Naruto jumped up from off the floor, causing Hinata to jump a little herself.

"YES!" Hinata watched as Naruto went through his apartment looking for what she supposed was a phonebook. He ended up locating two in a cabinet beneath the sink in his bathroom. Hinata giggled at the strange location, though admittedly expected nothing less strange from him. Naruto came out of the bathroom with two clearly outdated phonebooks placing them on the table. "Phonebook delivery." He said to Hinata giving a smirk that made her heart beat in her ears. She smiled thanking him, taking one phone book and opening it.

She placed a piece of paper on one page in the phone book and placed one flower on it. "Could you put the other flowers on the paper please?" Naruto followed her orders, picking up the other three purple flowers placing them on the paper. Hinata took the other piece of paper and placed it on top of the flowers, she then closed the heavy phone book trapping the flowers inside.

Naruto sat down on the floor relaxed leaning back on his hands.

"Wow finally done! That's was great Hinata I can't wait till this is done. So how long until we get to take them out twenty…thirty minutes?" Naruto said reaching for his frog mug going to drink his tea, forgetting its temperature.

"A couple of weeks." Naruto spit out his tea from a mix of shock and the tea still being very hot. Hinata watched the display with shock; very concerned that Naruto had just burned himself. "N-Naruto-kun! Are you ok?" Naruto tried to recollect himself to respond.

"Well y-yes but a couple of _weeks_?" Hinata smiled picking up her mug taking a slow sip of tea.

"Pressing flowers is a process Naruto-kun. You must be patient."

'_Patient_…' Naruto smiled. "Just like you." Hinata let out a giggle, Naruto beamed at the sound, loving the way it filled his apartment.

"Well thank you very much Naruto-kun, though I'd say I can be pretty impatient." Naruto gasped at that statement.

"Are you kidding?" He exclaimed throwing his hands in the air. "You're one of the most patient people I know." Hinata blushed at the praise. "I mean…you've been patient with an oblivious idiot like me all these years. " He said in a low voice. Silence echoed throughout the room. Though it wasn't comforting like when they were walking together.

"How can one be patient with what they know is an impossible dream?" Hinata said breaking the silence.

"Is that what I am to you Hinata, an impossible dream?" Hinata lowered her eyes, clenching her fists on the table. Naruto stared at her squinted eyes feeling a pang of guilt; he raised his hand from off his lap gently placing it on one of her fists. Hinata fists slowly unclenched as she glanced at the hand now resting on her own. "Hinata, tell me?" Hinata looked up into blue eyes.

"Tell you what?" A puzzled look graced her face.

"Tell me….What is our nindo?" Hinata's eyes widened.

"_O-our_ nindo…?" Naruto nodded. He watched Hinata's widened eyes calm as a gentle smile appeared on her face. "To never give up and to never go back on our words." Naruto smiled as the familiar words left her mouth.

"Hinata to see any dream as impossible goes against our nindo. It would mean that we were giving up. Starting today I never want to be known to you as an impossible dream." Hinata beamed at him and nodded.

"I promise I won't." Naruto smiled.

"Also starting today I'm making a promise to you, Hinata Hyuga, that I'm going to give myself a chance to fall just as in love with you as you are with me." Lavender eyes began to water.

"D-do you mean that?" Naruto squeezed her hand.

"Cross our nindo and hope to die!" Naruto watched as a smile from ear to ear appeared on Hinata's faced, tears of happiness fell down her check as she let out a joyous giggle. This time Naruto couldn't help but laugh along. "Hey Hinata?" Hinata's laughter slowly died down.

"Yes?"

"Do you know what the purple aster means?" A look of confusion Naruto couldn't deny to be adorable crossed Hinata's face.

"I actually don't Naruto-kun." Naruto smiled looking up at the ceiling.

"Patient love." Hinata gasped a blush rising to her cheeks. Naruto turned to her with a cheeky grin on his face.

"Naruto-kun…." Hinata whispered giving him a gentle smile.

That night Naruto lay in bed, staring at the stack of phonebooks on his table pressing the flowers. _'You must be patient.'_ he remembered Hinata's words. His mind drifted to the laughter that had earlier been filling his small apartment. _'When it comes to falling in love with you, I might just have to settle for impatient.'_

He fell asleep that night dreaming of a field of flowers. There he and Hinata lay side by side, drowning in the sunlight.

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Couldn't come up with an intro I liked...so I left it up to everyones own minds. I tried my best, sorry if it's kinda bad and confusing. I just hope you got some enjoyment out of it :)


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